THEIR IMPORTANCE DULY APPRECIATED. 109 
gated, and the greatest of comparative anatomists 
has devoted much of his time and talent to 
illustrate their organization. Similar inquiries 
have been carried on also by a host of other 
enlightened and laborious individuals, conduct- 
ing independent researches in various countries, 
since the commencement of the present century ; 
hence our knowledge of the osteology of a large 
number of extinct genera and species, now rests 
on nearly the same foundation, and is estab- 
lished with scarcely less certainty, than the 
anatomical details of those creatures that present 
their living bodies to our examination. 
We can hardly imagine any stronger proof of 
the Unity of Design and Harmony of Organiza- 
tions that have ever pervaded all animated 
nature, than w^e find in the fact established by 
Cuvier, that from the character of a single limb, 
and even of a single tooth or bone, the form and 
proportions of the other bones, and condition of 
the entire Animal may be inferred. This law 
prevails, no less universally, throughout the 
existing kingdoms of animated nature, than in 
those various races of extinct creatures that have 
preceded the present tenants of our planet ; 
hence not only the framework of the fossil 
skeleton of an extinct animal, but also the cha- 
racter of the muscles, by which each bone was 
moved, the external form and figure of the body, 
the food, and habits, and haunts, and mode of 
life of creatures that ceased to exist before the 
